National Mortgage News articles from January 2006

National Mortgage News archives from January 2006

Inside Track.
January 2, 2006... EDITORIAL 2006 Outlook 4 OPEN FORUM The Real Housing Bubble 4 STREET SMARTS Trends Mostly Favorable 5 Technology 'Global' Technology This Year 8 HOME BUILDERS ...

MPP Efforts in Limbo.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- After one year on the job, the top regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank System has not outlined a formal policy with respect to the bank's mortgage purchase programs. Three years ago, it appeared the FHLBanks might become...

No 2006 Boom Seen.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- It won't be the best of times, but it won't be the worst either. That's the general prognosis that economists who focus on housing finance have for 2006. Expect origination volumes to be down from 2005, but expect lending...

'Tale of the Tape' Comes Out Well in End.
January 2, 2006... ANN ARBOR, MI -- A computer tape containing data on the some two million residential mortgage customers of ABN Amro Mortgage Group Inc. here has been found. The tape disappeared as it was being shipped to a credit bureau. ABN Amro Mortgage...

Residential Jumbo Lenders in Q3 2005.
January 2, 2006... (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 2 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 3 Washington Mutual Seattle,...

Commercial And MF Grow.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding continues to grow, as real estate continues to hold investors' fancy, reaching the $2.5 trillion mark for the third quarter. This represents a 3.4% growth, or an increase of...

$11.5B for Katrina Rebuilding.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Congress has passed a $29 billion hurricane disaster assistance package that includes $11.5 billion in Community Development Block Grant funds to help the Gulf Coast states rebuild communities and housing stock. Mississippi...

November Home Sales Weaken.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Economists are predicting a slowdown in home sales in 2006 but recent reports show a slowdown is already taking hold. Existing home sales declined by 1.9% in November, following a 2.7% decline in October, according to the...

IO, Option ARM Guidance Comments Deadline is Feb. 27.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are seeking industry comment before issuing tough underwriting guidance on interest-only and payment-option ARMs that could have a chilling impact on the mortgage and housing markets. The proposed guidance,...

Fannie Cuts ARM Servicing Fee.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae has reduced its minimum servicing fee on adjustable-rate mortgages to 25 basis points and it is willing to go to a lower fee on a negotiated basis. The secondary market agency dropped its minimum ARM servicing fee...

TRIA Extension for Two Years.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Congress passed an extension of the federal terrorism re-insurance program so that commercial property owners can continue to obtain terrorism insurance for the next two years. Financial services and real estate groups...

Downgrade for Salomon MBS.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Class B-4 of Salomon Brothers Mortgage Securities VII Inc. mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1997-HUD1, has been downgraded from CC to C by Fitch. In addition, the ratings on four other classes in the deal and four...

Editorial: A New Start.(Editorial)
January 2, 2006... The outlook for the mortgage business for 2006 kind of depends on whether you're the glass-half-empty or glass-half-full type of person. The glass-half-empty guy is going to look at interest rates starting to nudge upwards, home values...

Open Forum: The Real Housing Bubble.
January 2, 2006... Mr. Retsinas, president of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, has contributed a commentary on the housing bubble, which is presented as our Open Forum. For the past five years, everyone connected with housing -...

Economic Indicators Point (Mostly) Positive as Year Comes to End.
January 2, 2006... The most recent economic indicators released last week showed that the economy was moving ahead nicely, with unemployment moderate, home sales strong, mortgage rates affordable and consumer confidence on a steady upswing. The only bump in the...

Lenders Can Learn Borrowers' Misconceptions About Foreclosure.
January 2, 2006... DETROIT -- Finding a solution to settle delinquent mortgage accounts could help lower the foreclosure rate in struggling markets across the country. A recent Freddie Mac/Roper Public Affairs and Media survey exposed the myths and misconceptions...

FHA Limits Rise Now Official.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development made it official last week, raising the limit on government-insured mortgages in 2006 to $362,790 in 88 high-cost markets, including 26 counties in California alone. The 2005 maximum...

Downgrades for SASCO MBS.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Three classes of Structured Asset Securities Corp. residential mortgage-backed securities have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades were as follows: series 2002-10H, class B4, from BB to B, and class B5, from B to...

Global Sees Technology as a Growth Tool in '06.
January 2, 2006... CLEARWATER, FL -- In its first two years of operation, Global Branch Solutions here has accumulated 4,000 brokers and 400 branches, establishing itself as one of the top five net branches and plans to continue its growth path into the future by...

MILA Launches AVM-Approved.
January 2, 2006... MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, WA -- Many have waited with bated breath for the acceptance of automated valuation models as a replacement for live appraisals. The wait is over as MILA has officially introduced an AVM-accepted loan product. ...

Toll Brothers Looks for New Opportunities in Land Investment.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Toll Brothers, a builder of luxury homes for the upper-middle-class borrower with an income of $150,000-$200,000, buys land in places where there is opportunity to reinvest. Looking back, the company, which also serves move-up,...

Builder, Engineer Target Louisiana.
January 2, 2006... NEW ORLEANS -- National homebuilder KB Home and The Shaw Group Inc., an engineering and construction company, will form a joint venture, KB Home/Shaw Louisiana LLC, to provide permanent housing and increased economic development to Louisiana in...

Fitch Says Scratch and Dent Deals Are 'Not Your Father's MBS'.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Scratch-and-dent transactions, which are becoming more commonplace in the U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities arena, have generally performed up to expectations, according to Fitch Ratings. In a special report titled...

Model Provisions.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- The American Securitization Forum has issued model contractual provisions that issuers of mortgage-backed securities can use with their existing loan purchase and servicing agreements to facilitate compliance with new registration,...

Pass Throughs Cut.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Three classes of an Affiliate of Entertainment Properties Trust commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2003-EPR, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: class D, from A1...

Four Downgrades.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Four classes of J.P. Morgan Commercial Mortgage Finance Corp. commercial mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2000-C10, have been downgraded by Moody's Investors Service. The downgrades were as follows: class J, from Ba3...

Comerica: Detroit Economy Woes May Affect Local Housing Market.
January 2, 2006... DETROIT -- The local economy here could steadily decrease before it sees the modest gains the rest of the country is experiencing. The Motor City has received unwanted attention for having one of the worst local economies in the country....

Many See Relatively Favorable Chances for 2006 Originations.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Interest rates and conditions in the housing market in 2006 - as at any time - are likely to determine what the primary origination market's volumes will be like next year. As always, there is some variation among individual...

More Data Break Notification Laws Are Possible.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- At least 22 states have enacted data break notification laws in 2005, and Jeffrey Marston, a partner with Lotstein Buckman LLP here, says more such laws are likely to be passed in 2006. "Over 200 proposed laws have been...

Watch for Inverted Curve.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- The shape of the yield curve is a notable factor likely to affect the fate of the secondary/securitized mortgage market next year. Some forecasts for 2006, such as RBS Greenwich Capital's, anticipate more flattening of the...

One Expert Says A Correction May Be in the Works for CMBS.(Correction Notice)
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- The commercial real estate market has been going full speed ahead in 2005, and at least one source expects that the market is due for a correction in 2006. Others see a decline in commercial mortgage originations and continued...

Challenges Facing Affordable Housing Not Just Limited to Finance.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- In times of increasing costs and decreasing federal and private funds, the affordable housing industry today faces the challenge of securing long-term affordability while connecting housing with financial education and community...

HUD: No Improvement in Affordability Seen for Past Ten Years.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Housing affordability in the country has not improved over the past 10 years, as over 5 million low-income households continue to pay "excessive rent or live in substandard conditions," according to HUD. The Department of...

National City Has Low-Mod.
January 2, 2006... DETROIT -- National City Mortgage Corp. is increasing its programs here to open more Motor City doors to a diverse group of borrowers. The Cleveland-based lender is rolling out a plan to open more doors in Detroit for low- to...

Construction Loans May Add More Growth to 2006 CMBS Totals.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Construction loans could be making it to the capital markets as early as 2006, fueling further growth in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market, according to panelists at a "Realshare" structured finance conference here....

FHLB-Des Moines Head to Quit.
January 2, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines said that Patrick Conway, the president and chief executive of the troubled bank, has stepped down and will retire. Board member Neil Fruechte will serve as acting president and CEO...

Old Republic Sets Payout of Special Dividend and Stock Split.
January 2, 2006... CHICAGO -- Old Republic International Corp.'s board of directors has decided to pay a special year-end cash dividend of $1 per share of common stock while also engaging in a 25% stock split. The dividend is payable on Dec. 30 to...

Impac Postpones Dividend Decision.
January 2, 2006... NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- Impac Mortgage Holdings has delayed a meeting to decide its fourth-quarter dividend plans until Jan. 5. Originally, the company's board of directors had planned to meet on Dec. 13 and declare a fourth-quarter dividend...

NYMT Declares Dividend.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- New York Mortgage Trust, a mortgage REIT that owns and manages a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage securities as well as a mortgage origination business, will pay a cash dividend of $0.21 per share to stockholders of...

Technology Trends: Making the Cut.
January 2, 2006... In the mortgage industry technology comes and goes. Take for example cumbersome legacy systems that force the user into doing business the way the system and not the user dictates, or toolkits that have very flashy technology but can't scale to...

E-Mortgages Become Mainstream in 2006?
January 2, 2006... The road to electronic mortgages has been in the works for some time, and some pioneers have actually been traveling on that road for years. Lenders like Navy Federal Credit Union, 1st Advantage, Ohio Savings and others have been selling...

Automated Underwriting Extends to Designer Loan Products.
January 2, 2006... With volume expected to shrink and interest rates to hit 7%, more lenders are tackling the nonconforming space as a growth vehicle. The problem is that exceptions have to be made in order to float these loans, which means manual underwriting or...

People.
January 2, 2006... ARIZONA Scottsdale-First National Bank of Arizona has promoted David Vicari to vice president area sales manager for the wholesale division's Michigan and Indiana territories. Mr. Vicari joined FNBA in 2004 as a wholesale account...

Mixed Outlook for Performance.
January 2, 2006... NEW YORK -- Most economists see an economy that is gaining strength as we move into 2006, but despite strong job and income growth, there are signs that home loan delinquency rates may face upward pressure. Outstanding mortgages originated...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 2, 2006... MIEC Index: 160.3 Change: 0.1 (part 1 of 2) Company 12/15/2005 12/29/2005 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 29.32 29.56 1% Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC)...

Inside Track.
January 9, 2006... EDITORIAL Emerging Wealth 4 OPEN FORUM Neg Am Concerns 4 STREET SMARTS Rate Hike Pressure 5 TECHNOLOGY Branches Unite 11 AFFORDABLE HOUSING Asian Market 12 RARES...

ABN Amro In Big FHA Settlement.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- ABN Amro Mortgage Group has agreed to pay a record $41 million, settling charges that company employees falsified certifications in regard to 28,000 loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Almost all of the...

Freddie Now Almost As Big.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- For years Freddie Mac has always been regarded as the "little brother" of Fannie Mae, but those days appeared to be numbered. Based on November figures released by the two congressionally chartered mortgage giants, they are...

Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae's 'Little Brother'.
January 9, 2006... ($ in Billions) GSE Portfolio at Portfolio at Percentage GSE's Current Name 11/05 12/04 Change Market Capitalization Fannie Mae $715.5 $904.5 (21%) ...

Alt-A Volumes Strong.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Mortgage bankers originated $122 billion worth of alt-A loans in the third quarter, an 81% gain from the same period a year earlier. The nation's top 20 ranked alt-A firms produced $77.9 billion, compared to $43.4 billion in...

Top Alt-A Lenders in Q3 05.
January 9, 2006... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Aurora Loan Services, Inc. (AA) (1) 2 IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. 3 WMC Mortgage Corp. (BC) 4 Impac Funding Corporation (AA) 5 ...

Freddie Has E-Loan Specs.
January 9, 2006... MCLEAN, VA -- After much ado, Freddie Mac has published its long-awaited electronic mortgage specifications to let the industry know what type of e-mortgages they're prepared to buy. Now both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are open for business on...

Ney Denies Wrongdoing.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the Housing Subcommittee, has denied all wrongdoing in regard to his relationship with scandal-plagued lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Last week, the once powerful lobbyist pleaded guilty to three...

Illinois Postpones 'Predatory' Database Pilot.
January 9, 2006... SPRINGFIELD, IL -- The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has issued an emergency rule delaying the effective date of the predatory lending database pilot program. Under the rule, the secretary of Financial and...

New NovaStar CEO Loves AEs.
January 9, 2006... KANSAS CITY, MO -- The new president and chief executive of NovaStar Mortgage Inc., David A. Pazgan, brings to the job an appreciation of the account executives who work in the trenches. After all, he started with the company as one of them....

Bear Stearns Unit Scrutinized by FTC.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission has launched a preliminary investigation into the residential servicing practices of EMC Mortgage Corp. to see if the firm is violating consumer protection laws. Bear Stearns & Co., the parent of...

FHA Raises Repair Cost Limit to $35,000 with Streamlined 203(k).
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Housing Administration has enhanced its newly introduced "streamlined" 203(k) program so that borrowers can obtain up to $35,000 for repairs when they refinance or purchase a home. The streamlined program, which...

Editorial: Emerging Wealth.(Editorial)
January 9, 2006... It's pretty much a truism that any growth in the mortgage business over the next several years will come from underserved communities like immigrants and low-mods. Helping these communities build assets through homeownership seems pretty much a...

Open Forum: Neg Am a Regulatory Concern.
January 9, 2006... Excerpts of Mr. Dugan's recent remarks before the Consumer Federation of America in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. Today I would like to talk about two consumer protection issues in the banking area that have been very much on...

Rate Hike May Pressure ARMs, But Subprime Opportunities Grow.
January 9, 2006... The Federal Reserve Board last week released the minutes of its Dec. 13 meeting, and the bond market was given no real new information to gauge the future direction of short-term interest rates, according to Stephen Stanley, chief economist at...

FIS Adds Marketing Tool to MSP.
January 9, 2006... JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Fidelity Information Services has partnered with XSell LLC to provide XSell's customer service marketing solution to companies using Fidelity's Mortgage Servicing Package. XSell enables mortgage servicers and others to...

First American's CFO Dies.
January 9, 2006... SANTA ANA, CA -- Thomas A. Klemens, the senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of The First American Corp. here, died on Jan. 3. In a statement issued by the company, Parker S. Kennedy, chairman and chief executive,...

Fitch Formalizes Rating Policy for Construction Loans.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- In a sign that construction loans are moving closer to Wall Street, at least one major rating agency, Fitch Ratings, has come out with a formal rating methodology on commercial real estate construction loan-backed securitizations....

Wells Tops List for Small Business.
January 9, 2006... DETROIT -- Wells Fargo & Co. is boasting of its small business lending success across the country and in the Midwest. The company recently gained attention as the top Small Business Aministration lender in the United States. The lender...

Flagstar Bank Pursues Expansion in Midwest and South.
January 9, 2006... DETROIT -- Flagstar Bank is getting a jump-start on business in the new year by implementing its branch expansion plan in the Midwest and the South. Over the past month, the Detroit area's fourth-largest lender has opened five new locations....

High LTV Deal Removed from Watch.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Class B-2 of Empire Funding Home Loan Owner Trust, series 1998-1, has been removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. The rating agency affirmed the BB rating on the class, as well as the ratings on 37 other classes...

Title Firms Dispute CA Study.
January 9, 2006... SACRAMENTO, CA -- The California Land Title Association is fighting back against a study issued by California insurance commissioner John Garamendi, which declares there is no competition for title insurance in California. In a statement...

Net Branches Unite to Squelch Risk Associated with Broker Fraud.
January 9, 2006... CLEARWATER, FL -- In a shrinking market the instances of fraud are typically on the rise, especially when it comes to broker fraud. In order to combat broker fraud, 12 net branches have joined forces to establish the Coalition Against Broker...

Study Says Education Is Key to Serving Asian Home Buyers.
January 9, 2006... MCLEAN, VA -- Financial education appears to be one of the main factors keeping Asian-Americans out of the housing market, according to "Homeward Bound: An In-depth Look at Asian Homebuyers in the United States," a Freddie Mac focus-group-based...

Roundup: Pennsylvania Bank Unloads $24 Million of MBS.
January 9, 2006... HARRISBURG, PA -- The Legacy Bank here has restructured its securities portfolio by selling $24 million of mortgage-backed securities. The securities sold had a weighted average yield of 3.77% and an average expected life of 2.8 years. In...

Ace Classes Downgraded.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Classes M-4, M-5 and M-6 of Ace Securities Corp. asset-backed securities, series 2003-FM1, have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. In addition, the rating agency affirmed the ratings on three other classes...

CSFB Deal Downgraded.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Seven classes in four CSFB Mortgage Securities Corp. mortgage-backed certificate transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The downgrades of mortgage-backed pass-through certificates were as follows: series 2002-5 G4,...

DLJ Class Downgraded.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Class B4 of DLJ Mortgage Acceptance Corp. residential mortgage pass-through certificates, series 1993-19, has been downgraded from B to CC by Fitch Ratings. Fitch also affirmed the ratings on 10 classes from four DLJ...

Despite Slowdown, REIT Stocks Still Beat Market.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Despite posting the smallest gain in three years, the REIT sector's 8.3% total return in 2005 exceeded the performance of the overall stock market for the sixth year in a row, according to the National Association of Real Estate...

...But Analyst Favors REIT Debt.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Analysts at CreditSights think that REIT debt makes a better choice than REIT stock investments right now. CreditSights believes that additional spread deterioration "should be limited due to a number of technical factors,...

People.
January 9, 2006... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Mavent Inc. has promoted Angela Cheek to vice president. Ms. Cheek, who joined Mavent in 2003 as associate senior counsel, has more than 12 years of experience in financial compliance and business law practices. ...

Zacks Says Sell This Mortgage Stock.
January 9, 2006... CHICAGO -- Zacks.com, a division of Zacks Investment Research, has placed MFA Mortgage Investments on the company's "stocks to sell now" list. Noting that MFA's CEO, Stewart Zimmerman, recently predicted that his company's fourth-quarter...

Creditwatch For 35.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has placed its ratings on 35 classes from 18 U.S. synthetic collateralized debt obligation deals on CreditWatch with negative implications. When pari passu tranches are combined, the 35 ratings...

Downgrade To CCC.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Class BF-4 of Salomon Brothers Mortgage Securities VII mortgage pass-through certificates, series 2001-UP2 group 1, has been downgraded from B to CCC by Fitch Ratings. Fitch also affirmed the ratings on 10 classes in the...

Fitch Downgrades.
January 9, 2006... NEW YORK -- Two classes of Structured Asset Security Corp. Amortizing Residential Collateral Trust, series ARC 2001-BC5, have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. Class M-1 was downgraded from AA to AA-minus, and class M-2 was downgraded from...

Construction Financing for AH.
January 9, 2006... LOS ANGELES -- A coalition of some of the country's largest financial institutions have joined affordable housing lender Century Housing, Culver City, Calif., in providing up to $100 million of affordable construction and permanent financing...

Publicly traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
January 9, 2006... B&C Stock Price Index: 204.0 Change: 5.4 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1/5/2006 Aames (AIC) 5.36 11.48 6.61 Delta Financial Corp (DFC) ...

GMAC Commercial Deal Not Done.
January 9, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The sale of GMAC Commercial was expected to close by the end of 2005 but New Year's came and went and still no deal. Industry officials familiar with the sale of the nation's largest commercial banking firm say the parties are...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 9, 2006... MIEC Index: 163.8 Change: 3.5 (part 1 of 2) Company 12/29/2006 1/5/2006 Wkly. % Chg. Astoria Federal (AF) 29.56 29.48...